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Norwegian Air has added the new perk on top of its existing frequent flyer programme.

The airline already offers free perks and reward points the more you use the airline (see below).

Under the new scheme, each CashPoint you earn is worth 1 Norwegian Krone, which at the time of writing was worth around 9p. This means with most of the more popular retailers offering lower redemption rates it would take a huge spend to earn many points at all. For example, it would take around a £100 spend at retailers such as John Lewis (paying 1 per cent) or an £19 spend at Buyagift.com (paying 5.5 per cent) to earn a single point.

According to the budget airline, flights to Europe cost from £29 or 322 CashPoints. So you would have to spend a whopping £32,200 in John Lewis or £5,854 with a more rewarding partner to earn enough for a free European flight.

Flying further afield will cost you even more. Flying to the USA with the airline costs from £139 one way or 1,543 CashPoints, and flights to Singapore cost from £179 or 1,987 CashPoints.

The more lucrative way to use the scheme is to click through before signing up for your household bills. Taking out a new mobile contract, home insurance or even switching your energy tariff offers much higher returns in flat-rate rewards.

To start clocking up points you can register for an account for free and access the Reward eShop on a desktop, mobile or tablet.

It will pay a flat rate or percentage of your spend back in its rewards currency, CashPoints, as long as you click through its website first before spending.

Doing so won’t affect any deals you receive from the retailer or the products you are offered.

How does it work with the frequent flyer scheme?

Under the existing frequent flyer scheme you earn points when you buy flights. Flyers get 2 per cent back on LowFare tickets and 20 per cent on Flex Tickets.

You can earn extra points with its hotel, car hire, parking and holiday partners. These sit in the same pot as anything you earn from the eStore.

The reward scheme also comes with extra perks. For every six flights you take you receive one reward that lasts for a year. The first reward is a 2 per cent CashPoints boost when you buy LowFare tickets.

After that you get a choice. You can get further CashPoints boosts when buying flights (you can pick this up to five times, meaning a maximum 10 per cent back in points per flight).

Alternatively, you can earn 12 months of free seat reservations or fast-track boarding and after 18 flights you can get free baggage on all flights for a year. This seems a lot, but every single trip counts as one flight. Therefore, a roundtrip with stopovers is worth four flights. Unfortunately, only the account holder qualifies, so anyone travelling with you won’t benefit unless they use their own points.

The big apple: It will cost £139 one way or 1,543 CashPoints for a ticket to New York

Is it worth signing up?

Typically the best reward schemes are offered by more premium airlines, with the most well-known schemes offered by Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. So it is great news that a cheaper airline is offering extra perks and rewards for your loyalty. But remember, if you want a more comfortable flight, you will need to factor in extra costs. These budget airlines offer a no-frills service, which often means they charge extra for meals, drinks and even blankets.

There is little to lose from signing up, but don't expect to earn enough for a free flight quickly.

Remember the golden rule with these types of scheme is to never to let them influence your spending. Clicking through the website should be your last step after checking for the cheapest deals elsewhere.

It is also, of course, only worth considering if Norwegian Air offers flights from an airport near you, and you want to travel to the countries it services.

When it comes to the rewards, it should be noted while there are a fair amount of offers of around 5 to 10 per cent and higher, when This is Money looked, the most eye-catching rates on offer were with slightly less popular retailers. You are likely only to get around 1 or 2 per cent back with high-street retailers such as John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and Halfords so you won't get a great deal of points quickly.

The new Norwegian Air scheme works in much the same way as a cashback website or the Avios store. You should therefore also check whether you could earn more by using either of these, or any similar rewards scheme you might have through your bank account or credit card. For example, when This is Money looked, you could earn 5 per cent back on spending at Debenhams and 7.5 per cent back with Marks and Spencer when clicking through popular cashback site Quidco. This compares to 1.5 per cent for both from the eStore.

It could therefore be more lucrative to shop online using a cashback website and then use your earnings to buy flights with the airline separately. It’s also worth remembering these sites when you are booking flights in the first place.

ANY ALTERNATIVE REWARDS SCHEMES?

You can already use Avios points to fly with lower-cost airlines Aer Lingus, Flybe and Iberia. If you have BA executive Avios you can also fly with One World Alliance members.

The Avios scheme has its own eStore you can click through to help boost your Avios pot and there are several credit cards offering extra earning potential.